I celebrated my 31st birthday last Friday, and I had a great dinner with the family, complete with mexican food, cheesecake & some great gifts. Oh, and the weather that day was gorgeous too. I am a lucky lady in the fact that I always seem to have great birthday celebrations, and not that I come to expect them, but they just seem to turn out well. What I did not expect this year was to wake up about an hour after I had gone to bed and suddenly feel sick...I had eaten at least 3 hours earlier, and for some reason I then woke up to feeling too full & green around the gills...I will spare you the details, but...I vomited...again, and again (that's 3 times if you're counting). I guess baby #2 does not like mexican...I had to work the next morning at 3:30am, and this cleaning up situation was not going to be an easy process. I had made it to the bathroom, and that was the best I could do. It was gross. No, really. Gross. I called downstairs to Nick who was watching TV with Tina & Scott who stayed to hang after the festivities, and he came right up & saw the damage I had inflicted on our poor helpless bathroom. It was gross. Gross.
Where I go from here is the reason I'm writing this post. Nick told me to go back to bed & he would clean up. This was not just any clean-up, this was the clean-up of all clean-ups. The motherload of clean-ups if you will...and without hesitation, he started to work. I was really tired & a little out of it, so I got back into bed & only really remember opening my eyes once to see him on the floor with his t-shirt covering his nose. And that was it. To me, this is why Nick, Grady and I are who we are-"messy".
In case you didn't know, "messy" isn't just a word anymore, it's a phrase. It comes from a talk show we now watch & has oddly become a household favorite (even for Grady), called "The Wendy Williams Show". I listened to Wendy on the radio when we lived in Memphis, and when I saw she was getting a syndicated tv show, I knew I would watch, but I did not expect Nick to like it, and by no means expected Grady to even look at it. But the music, set & over-the-top look of Wendy herself made Grady take notice, and Nick can appreciate anyone who says it like it is, (wendy said on her show last week Lindsey Lohan is the oldest looking young person she has ever seen...LOL), so every night after bath, we are watching Wendy Williams. One of things she constantly calls herself & her show is "messy". But, she describes "messy" as a wonderful compliment...She said, "It means there’s always something askew or there’s always a hair or 10 out of place. It’s fabulous, but there’s always that one thing that makes you say, “What the heck?” Like a beautiful outfit with a visible panty line. That makes us human. We’re all messy in our own way."
I'm not sure if it's the lack of female influence in my household growing up (as my dad would say), or just the way God made me, but I am rare to get too emotional, gushy, etc. in a public kind of way. I have all the emotions, more now with having babies, but I still have this little fence I like to keep which allows me to reserve the real emotions to my private time. The fence is not a 6 ft. privacy fence, more like a 4 ft. fence that you can see through, but there is still a boundry clearly marked for visitors. I often don't gush over much. There may be gushing in my mind, or thoughts that I wish I would say, but I don't. I'm sure there's a therapist out there willing to take my money to explain that to me, but I think I'll just stick with that's just who I am, thank you very much. I would call this "messy".
But, you know, I will take the "messy"...I think Nick and I have both inherited the "messy" from our families, and it IS wonderful. When Grady has an absolute meltdown everytime he goes into the church nursery, or when Nick eats things he knows are totally NOT from the suggested list from Dr. Tyznik's food suggestions, it's just the "messy" kind of people we are. But, you know what, not to gush, but I have a husband who will put his shirt over his nose & clean up my vomit. And not that I hope to return the favor...but if I had to, I would clean up his vomit in a heartbeat too. And I know that Nick will get this, even if no one else does. I hope we are able to teach both our boys that words are always nice, but our family will get down on their knees & clean up your mess. We will embrace your "messiness" & make no judgements.
